Policy paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Policy - Research Paper Example Both of these policies, working in consort, and in spite of a polarizing political climate, did manage to turn the American economy around. However, it was because of the desperate political climate that the ARRA was made to suffer less than a full effect on the American economy. It could have done much more, but the damaging political climate refused to allow deeper systemic problems to be addressed. Introduction The UN International Labor Organization estimated that the recent global regression resulted in worldwide job losses at 50 million by the end of 2009 (Taylor and Weepapana, 2009). With demand of goods falling worldwide, global economic growth was expected to shrink by 2 percent, effecting emerging economics as far as in Eastern Europe and in mainland China. Taiwan saw its exports fall 42.9 percent. Unemployment in the United Kingdom which was 4.7 in 2000 and grew to 5.0 in 2008, reached 7.9 by December 2010. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics charted unemp loyment rates that varied between 4.1 and 5.0 percent 2000 through November 2005. These rates begin to worsen by September 2008, reaching 6.5 by October 2008 and the highest level of 10.0, 15.4 million people out of work, by November 2009. A total of 750,000 jobs was being lost per month in an economy that was contracting 6 percent annually (CEA). Clearly, economic policy had faltered worldwide and particularly in the United States. By December 2008, the National Bureau of Economic Research had finally declared the U.S. had been in a recession since December 2007. Growth in the fourth quarter of 2008 had shrunk to a negative 6.2%, the lowest since 1982. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Immediately after his election, President Barak Obama led the 111th United States Congress through a series of emergency measures. These measures capitalized to his signing into law, on February 17 2009, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA, Pub.L. 111-5), referred to as the Stimulus or the Recovery Act. This $787 billion spending program consisted of $286 billion in tax cuts to stimulate the economy and expenditures for spending on infrastructure, State, revenue sharing, unemployment benefits, food stamps, and business and middle class tax cuts. Specifically the ARRA directed $88 billion for direct purchase of goods; $44 billion for infrastructure transfers to state and local governments; $215 billion for non-infrastructure transfers to state and local governments, accounting for such as public safety and education spending; $100 billion for direction transfers to persons in form of unemployment insurance benefits, and student loans; $18 billion to retirees; and tax cuts totaling $266 billion that covered business tax provisions and such as the first-time homebuyer tax credit (Berger and Gaffney, 2009). The ARRA funded many specific programs that sought to influence change in greenhouse technology, rapid transit, electronic medical health records a mong a large number of broad base initiatives. For education, the ARRA allocated $5 billion to the Department of Education to fund programs under the Race to the Top program that closed the achievement gap and improved student achievement. The DoE allowed successful programs to compete for grants from a $650 million fund that would enable them to

The Significance of Womens Organizations Group Activities in Essay

The Significance of Womens Organizations Group Activities in Relationship to Their Opposition to the War in Vietnam - Essay Example As well women worked in the war as journalists, flight attendants, and in various church and humanitarian organizations, and the significance of these activities in relationship to the women's opposition and reaction to the war in Vietnam is an issue which is of incredible importance. The aim of this paper is to not only discuss the different organizations and group activities that women were involved in during the Vietnam War but as well the significance of their participation with them overall considering how against the war most women actually were. By doing this, we will be able to come to a much more informed and knowledgeable understanding on the subject matter at hand overall. This is what will be dissertated in the following. The history of women and war is one which has basically been forgotten in comparison to that of man's, however it is important to realize that women have actually always played a part, and in fact, "Between 1962 and 1973, according to Department of Defense statistics, approximately 7,500 women served on active military duty in Vietnam. The Veteran's Administration puts the numbers even higher, at around 11,000. Independent surveys estimate that the number of women, both civilian and non-civilian, working in Vietnam during the war is between 33,000 and 55,000" (Carlson, 2007). However, despite these incredibly large and notable numbers of women in the military, they have had a long and hard road in regards to gaining even remote equality. One of the most notorious organizations that women worked for during the Vietnam War was the Red Cross Organization, and the Red Cross basically maintained three particular and different programs during the Vietnam conflict which were: Service to Military Hospitals (SMH), Service to Military Institutions (SMI), and Supplemental Recreation Activities Overseas (SRAO). "SMH provided recreational and casework services to service personnel who were hospitalized and casework services for service personnel who were employed in military hospitals. Women employed in SMI provided primarily clerical services with some individual assistance for obtaining loans if personnel had to return home for a family emergency. SMH and SMI functioned both in the United States and in foreign countries and both in peace and in war. The Red Cross program which was eventually entitled Supplemental Recreation Activities Overseas (SRAO) originated in World War II specifically to employ civilian women who wished t o make a contribution to the country during periods of war" (Firestone & Robinson, 1996). When it comes to the issue of the reaction that was felt by women towards the Vietnam War, there are many issues that need to be taken into consideration here as well. In comparison to the percentage of men against the Vietnam War, there were almost double the amount of women who felt negatively towards it, however at the same time the war presented many opportunities for women, and so while they still felt disapprovingly towards the war, there were still then obviously reasons that they also were rather positive towards it, as they were benefitting in different